Federalism in the Forest: National Versus State Natural Resource Policy

Beschreibung

Beschreibung

A love for nature and the forest drew Tomas Koontz to develop a keen interest in the workings of public forest management and forest policy. Beyond policy, however, this book is also about the very human issues of federalism, decentralization of control over public lands, citizen participation, and how agency policies, both state and federal, are formulated and exercised.Federalism in the Forest is the first book to examine and compare public policy performance across both state and national levels, explaining why state agencies excel at economic outputs and profitability, the management of land with state income in mind -- while national agencies are stronger in citizen participation and the inarguably important role of environmental protection. Instead of focusing on historical development of federal-state roles or on state officials as affected by national polices, Koontz shows how officials, when given authority, both make and implement policy at the state versus the national level. Although arguments fly about the decentralization of public lands -- most often based on ideology -- Koontz offers empirical evidence that demonstrates not only that devolution matters, but how.

Portrait

Tomas M. Koontz is assistant professor of environmental and natural resources policy, School of Natural Resources, The Ohio State University.

Pressestimmen

"[A] concise and readable summary of the differences between federal and state forestry policies... a useful tool." -- Natural Resources Journal "A timely and important book that makes an important contribution to the literature. Federalism in the Forest will be of particular interest to social scientists and policymakers interested in the federal nature of natural resource policy, and to those wondering about the consequences of devolving natural resource policy to state and local levels of government." -- Perspectives on Politics